SC rejects plea against dropping disqualification proceedings against AIADMK MLAs

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to interfere with the Tamil Nadu assembly Speaker’s decision to drop disqualification proceedings against a section of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) lawmakers for backing C Joseph Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK)-led government in the trust vote in May. It observed that the AIADMK condoned their action and a challenge could not be maintained at the behest of an “interloper”.The Supreme Court said a multi-party system allows different views to be maintained within a party. (HT PHOTO)A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana dismissed the plea of lawyer PV Selvakumar, who claimed to be an AIADMK member. Selvakumar moved the Supreme Court after the Madras High Court turned down his petition challenging the Speaker’s June 9 decision dropping the disqualification proceedings against AIADMK lawmakers, as it was done based on the party general secretary’s May 27 letter.The bench said the constitutional sanctity under the Tenth Schedule (anti-defection law) must be preserved. “But we have to understand the working of the democratic system.”Advocate Nina Nariman, who appeared for Selvakumar, said the disqualification petition should have been taken to its logical end once the Speaker admitted it. She said the lawmakers had clearly defected and violated the party whip to oppose the vote of confidence.The bench said the lawmakers may have violated the whip and allowed the new government to survive, but they have not lost their identity. “They continue to be in AIADMK.”The bench said a multi-party system allows different views to be maintained within a party. “We have a multi-party system. One can say I prefer party C to be in power than party B. If the party had made an application, we could appreciate. But here, it appears you are at best an opportunistic interloper or at best a conscientious person adhering to minority philosophy.”The bench asked Nariman to consider that the party had condoned their action. “Also look at the burden. If one party could not muster courage and missed by a very thin margin, if nobody supports, what will be the consequence? There will be fresh elections,” it said. “Once a political party absolves defection due to political purpose, it will be difficult for us to bind them down in narrow legalistic terms.”On August 18, the high court said the moment the AIADMK general secretary submitted a letter dated July 25 to the Speaker condoning the act of the lawmakers, the question of their disqualification does not arise. It added that the Speaker rightly dropped the disqualification proceedings.In May, the TVK, which has 108 seats, won the trust vote in the state assembly with the support of 144 lawmakers in 234-member House.